NTSB wants the U.S. government to make advanced safety systems mandatory on new cars

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) wants the U.S. government to order new safety technologies in all vehicles to help lower driver distraction.

The NTSB wants to require systems such as forward collision warning, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control and advanced braking on all new vehicles. The NTSB also wants the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to set performance standards for the technologies that are primarily offered on luxury cars.

“Their full life-saving and crash-avoidance potential will not be realized until supported by federal rulemaking and related standards,” the NTSB said. The National Transportation Safety Board also repeated its pledge for banning all portable cellphone use, including hands-free calls, that it first made in December. So far, no state has introduced this ban. The only U.S. city that had approved it, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, saw its ordinance overturned by a local judge in August.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing Detroit’s Big Three automakers, Toyota, Volkswagen and others, opposes making those technologies mandatory because that would make cars more expensive.

“We are urging consumers to check them out, but the choice to purchase one or more belongs to consumers. In this still-fragile economy, maintaining affordability of new vehicles remains a concern. Every new technology could be a new mandate, and every mandate is a new cost to consumers,” spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist was quoted as saying by the Detroit News.